Le Clos and Rousseau qualify for Glasgow IM

The Olympic gold medallist only recorded one Commonwealth Games qualifying time, though, and was joined by Sebastien Rousseau.

Both men dipped under the required mark of four minutes, 18.99 seconds (4:18.99) in the IM with Le Clos storming to the title in 4:14.81 ahead of Rousseau (4:18.17), who made a qualifying time for the first time this week.

Ayrton Sweeney (4:19.77) was a close third.

Earlier in the evening, Le Clos won the 100m freestyle dash in 49.38 seconds, narrowly outside the 48.93 qualifying time, while he was only seventh fastest qualifier in the 100m butterfly semi-final.

"I said from the start this was going to be the hardest day for me because of the 400 IM there at the end," Le Clos said afterwards.

"I tried to just get through that 100 free earlier in the evening, you obviously can't hold back in that race, and in the 100 fly semi I tried to conserve as much as I could. "So it worked out well for me." He will now bid to equal the seven-gold medal haul at a nationals, held by his coach Graham Hill and Olympic 200m breaststroke silver medallist from Sydney 2000, Terence Parkin.

"Three tough races are out the way and I have two more to go tomorrow," said Le Clos, whose younger brother Jordan swam in the 400 IM final and came in eighth.

The 21-year-old was also pleased for Rousseau.

"I'm really happy that Seb got the time," he added.

"He's been around for a long time and he needed that. There's no one more deserving than him."

Rousseau himself was equally relieved having missed out on qualification in the 200 metres freestyle earlier in the week.

"All I wanted to do was get a qualifying time, so it's a huge relief," he said. "It wasn't a pretty race or a great time, but I made the team and I'm really happy about that."

Brett Walsh took silver in the 100m free style with a time of 50.17, while bronze went to Leith Shankland (50.23).

Elsewhere on Thursday, Cameron van der Burgh was the fastest qualifier in the 50m breaststroke semis with a time of 27.05, with Charl Crous (54.90) fastest in the 100m backstroke and Nico Meyer (54.80) quickest in the 100m butterfly.

Brent Szurdoki won the only other men's title on offer when he swam to gold in the 800m freestyle after a time of 8:11.42.

Among the women, Marne Erasmus took the 100m butterfly title in 59.43, but missed the qualifying time of 58.89 as she ended ahead of Vanessa Mohr (59.92) and Rene Warnes (1:02.26).

Michelle Weber clinched the 800m freestyle gold in 8:46.16, well off the necessary 8:34.33 time, with Caitlin Kat (8:49.23) scooping silver and Kyna Pereira (8:58.12) bronze.

In semi-final races, Jessica Ashley-Cooper (29.19), Franko Jonker (1:09.02) and Trudi Maree (25.66) were fastest in the 50m backstroke, 100m

breaststroke and 50m freestyle respectively.

The six-day competition at the Kings Park Aquatics Centre is doubling up as the official qualification event for the July 23 to August 3 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and all swimmers must record the stipulated times if they want to make the team.

(File photo:Gallo Images)